Board of Governors International Atomic Energy Agency - EU Statement Any other business Financial situation of the IAEA

Silence Procedure

Chair,  

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. The following countries align themselves with this statement: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.

We are deeply concerned by the DG’s opening remarks that the Agency is able to cover operations only until mid-August. 

We appreciate that the Secretariat has already taken important measures to address the consequences of a zero nominal growth budget, identifying savings and efficiencies, including with regard to staff benefits. 

We call upon all IAEA Member States to pay their outstanding contributions to the regular budget in full and on time. To date, more than half of the IAEA Member States have not paid their contributions. Among them are Member States with the largest assessed contributions to the Agency. We also call on all Member States with outstanding arrears to urgently settle these. This is the only way to prevent the looming liquidity crisis. The Agency should be sufficiently financed in order to implement the programme as adopted by all IAEA Member States.

Thank you, Chair.